Update-b/c I have run out of title names and it's early so I'm tired

*Here’s to more frequent blog posts since Mom and Dad almost called the mission organization because they hadn’t heard from me in a week.*

It’s a bitter sweet moment when patients leave the hospital. We have a few patients that have been at the hospital for several months having their chronic wounds (mostly gunshot) treated. Recently two left in one day. It’s somewhat good because then they are well enough that they can leave, but then it’s sad because they had been here since before I came, so we had all gotten to know them. You also hope that a seed of faith has been planted, and that they leave with some hope. It’s hard to know when people are sincere or just completing a task seeking approval. I always hope it’s the former, but I can’t get too naïve, which is a sad realization. Lots of prayers for them.

On a lighter note…bike riding can be such a trip at times. These roads are like Mario kart obstacle courses. There are chickens, goats, and people always in the street. Wheelbarrows with wide loads plodding along or people carrying long iron beams or tree limbs across the road making you think that you will have to limbo under them. And of course there are a few of the locals who do fun stuff like pretend they are going to walk right out in front of you or shovel dirt right in your path. Every day is a mystery course. One fun thing we got to do last week…for our weekly team meeting, we went to the Tropicana Lounge, got 20 ounce bottled cokes, and watched the soccer game! USA! USA! It was a lovely little excursion.

Over the weekend we finally plucked up the courage to go swimming! The river has risen from the rain so there aren’t as many sandbars and it gets deep fast. We were told there used to be hippos and crocodiles in the river, but they have been extinct there for some time from being hunted…let’s hope that’s not a rumor. But the water felt wonderful and luckily no one felt anything creepy while in the water. My next excursion to complete is to go out on a pirogue—the long thin boats that the river people use. Looking forward to that one.